196 Pop Culture Topics for Essays, Research Papers, & Speech

Are you looking for popular culture essay topics? You’re at the right place! StudyCorgi has compiled a list of popular culture topics for you to debate in argumentative papers or use for essays, projects, and other assignments. Feel free to use these pop culture research topics for your inspiration!

👨‍🎤 TOP 7 Pop Culture Topics for Essays

1. Functionalism and Other Theories of Popular Culture
2. The Impact of Popular Culture on Body Image
3. The Influence of Popular Culture on Society
4. Exploring Popular Culture in Architecture
5. Why Are Fantasy Films so Popular?
6. Michael Jackson’s Influence on Pop Culture
7. The Global Impact of American Popular Culture

🏆 Best Pop Culture Topics to Write About

1. “Cultural Theory and Popular Culture” by John Storey

   The work “Cultural Theory and Popular Culture” by John Storey, contributes to understanding the complexity of culture and its social impact.
2. The Impact of Popular Culture on Body Image in Women

   This paper is about how the media and film industry promotes unhealthy body image toward women and how it affects women consumers.
3. How Popular Culture Influences Morality in Society

   The article titled “Readers on Morality: Don’s Let TV Be Guide,” reveals much insight regarding what most content consumers feel about popular TV shows.
4. Michael Jackson: Essay on His Influence on Music & Pop Culture

   Jackson has received a place in pop history as a pioneer and legend, which is why he will always be remembered as the King of Pop.
5. The Influence of Popular Culture on Society’s Perception of Wealth as Life’s Priority

   The modern world has long entered the era of technological advancement that broadened the scope of popular culture manifestations.
6. The Impact of Technology on American Popular Culture in the 20th Century

   The work aims to examine how the development of technology influenced the popular culture of America in the twentieth century.
7. Cars in Popular Culture and Mass Media

   The entirety of ideas, fancy images, attitudes, and perspectives within the cultural mainstream define what is known as popular (or pop) culture.
8. The Link Between Pop Culture and Stereotypes

   The majority of movies in the military and action genre involved Russians as primary antagonists. Such films used the stereotypical version of Russians.
9. “TV, Ideology, and Emancipatory Popular Culture”: General Idea and Sub-Points

   The author sees mass media as a powerful tool of influence on the public as well as a great sphere for the social struggle against social unfairness.
10. Popular Culture and the Cold War

    Popular culture was strongly restricted. The Cold War had an immense influence on the lives of people since they were afraid to be considered communists.
11. Popular Culture via the Lens of Marxism, Postmodernism, and Psychoanalysis

    The purpose of this paper is to describe a popular culture through the lens of Marxism, Postmodernism, and Psychoanalysis.
12. Pop Culture in “The Godfather” by Coppola

    The Godfather film is a part of the pop culture because it is regularly cited as an inspiration by many filmmakers.
13. Popular Culture in “Inglourious Basterds” Film

    One of the most well-known and controversial movies about World War II, “Inglourious Basterds” by Quentin Tarantino, is densely packed with references to popular culture.
14. Gender Representation in American Pop Culture

    The excerpt of the book “The Pop Culture Freaks” focuses on the representation of gender in American pop culture that is a powerful tool capable of impacting social tendencies.
15. Pop Culture and Serial Killer in Darkly Dreaming Dexter

    The essay compares and contrasts how the literary study could explore “Darkly Dreaming Dexter” differently than a film analysis could of the TV series.
16. Einstein’s Impact on Science, Pop Culture, and Diversity

    Albert Einstein was chosen because he is one of the most recognized figures in science and pop culture and his name is well-known to people and children.
17. Pop Culture: Developments, Recycling and Revitalizing

    Pop can be defined as the usual way of life of Americans. It refers to the popular culture that at least all Americans agree to.
18. Resistance in Popular Culture

    In the 1970s, with the development of equal rights movement, popular music was enriched by a number of songs, which sought to de-construct androcentrism.
19. Interconnection in Popular Culture

    With globalization and commercialization of culture, every aspect of culture seems to be merged into one single realm.
20. Popular Culture’s and Fashion Industry’s Influences

    The popular culture influences particularly the youth. This paper creates awareness for the audience concerning the effects of the manufacturers’ advertisements.

🎮 Pop Culture Artifacts to Write About

A pop culture artifact is an object or piece of media that has widespread popularity and reflects the trends of a particular time. Here are some of them you may write about:

• Pop and rap music.
• Movies and TV series.
• Comics and cartoons.
• Games.
• Clothing.
• Sports.
• Food and beverages.

🎓 Most Interesting Pop Culture Essay Topics

1. Gendered Details and Variations Between Popular Culture
2. Method Acting and 1950’s Popular Culture
3. Differences Between Popular Culture and Indigenous Culture
4. Baseball and American Popular Culture
5. How Does Popular Culture Mirror America Life?
6. Media and Popular Culture During World War I
7. Popular Culture and Border Musical Audience
8. American Popular Culture Definition
9. Popular Culture Affect Gender and Sexuality
10. American Music and Popular Culture
11. Advertising and Senior Citizen Treatment by Popular Culture
12. Popular Culture and Consumerism
13. European Witchcraft and Popular Culture
14. Christianity and Popular Culture
15. Did the Popular Culture of 1960 Do More Harm Than Good?
16. Popular Culture and the Influence of TV News
17. Shakespeare and Modern Popular Culture
18. Contrasting and Comparing Mass Society With Popular Culture Media
19. How Does Popular Culture Stereotype Latinos?
20. Bureaucratization and Popular Culture
21. Asian Americans and Popular Culture
22. American Popular Culture and Advertisement
23. American Popular Culture and Gender Roles
24. Immigration and Popular Culture
25. Korean Popular Culture and Its Influence in India
26. Society’s Changing Views Reflected on Popular Culture
27. Popular Culture American Family in Television Entertainment
28. Moscow’s 1980 Olympic Games and Russia’s Popular Culture
29. American Influence on Popular Culture in Australia
30. Japanese Popular Culture and Traditional Culture

🔎 Pop Culture Issues to Research

Pop culture reflects and shapes societal values, frequently sparking debates on various topics. Here are some common pop culture issues:

1. Racism. Pop culture can perpetuate racial stereotypes, leading to discrimination and a lack of understanding among different social groups.
2. Gender representations. Nowadays, gender is a shifting term, and pop culture plays a crucial role in defining it. Frequently, pop culture reinforces traditional gender roles, potentially limiting opportunities for both men and women.
3. Cultural imperialism. This phenomenon occurs when one culture imposes its values, practices, and lifestyles onto other cultures. It can overshadow or even threaten other nations’ cultures. One example of cultural imperialism is Hollywood movies, which often outperform the films shot by independent foreign film studios.
4. Censorship. Censorship is a controversial issue in popular culture. It sparks debates about balancing artistic freedom and protecting audiences from potentially harmful content. There’s also the question of who should draw the line between what is freely expressed and what is restricted.
5. Sexuality in pop culture. The portrayals of sexuality and relationships in popular media are often problematic. They create double standards — different expectations of men and women. People frequently face criticism when they do not fit these norms imposed by the media.

🌶️ Hot Popular Culture Ideas to Write about

1. Introducing Popular Culture: Foundational Perspectives and Trends

   Population culture includes all the aspects of life that we live by. Popular culture helps businesses to grow because they have to get what is trendy at to meet the people’s needs.
2. Aspects of the American Pop Culture

   The paper states that the American film industry is one of the main components of the nation’s popular culture. It highlights the domains in the US.
3. Anime in Pop Culture: Art Review

   Anime as a form of art presented a new storytelling method. The link between cinema and anime is evident in the technology and storylines used.
4. Doctor Faustus in Popular Culture

   This paper examines the image of Doctor Faustus in popular culture, using the examples of the works by Christopher Marlowe and George Lucas.
5. “The Star Trek” Film and Popular Culture

   This paper analyzes the book Star Trek and Popular Culture and analyzes the issues addressed such as Trump’s politics, civil rights, war, and gender inequality.
6. Worldly Writing on Music: K-Pop Culture

   Music is an essential component in the socio-cultural mainframe of any community due to the trickle-down effect of influencing emotional connectivity despite diversity.
7. Pokémon Go Pop Culture Analysis

   Pokémon Go became one of the most popular games in the world right after its release in 2016. For a short time, the game became part of pop culture.
8. How Popular Culture Can Promote the Idea of Sexual Assault in Society

   Popular culture, including articles, songs, videos, and other materials from influencers in social media and life, can promote the idea of sexual assault in society.
9. The Impact of Popular Culture on Racial Perceptions

   Dehumanization through the use of racial stereotypes in popular culture extends as far as labeling minorities “exotic.”
10. Pop Culture as a Potent Globalization Tool

    Pop culture popularizes different ideas and makes them familiar to people from various countries, which helps to minimize the number of misunderstandings.
11. Hip-Hop Influence on American Popular Culture

    The sphere of the hip-hop influence on American popular culture is constantly extending, involving new forces and new interpretations.
12. Pop Culture in Movies: How Far Can It Get?

    Pop culture is music, films, products etc. in a particular society that are familiar to and popular with most ordinary people in that society.
13. Dickson’s “I’m Nobody! Who Are You?” & Pop Culture

    Emily Dickson vividly portrays that modern society is influenced by mass culture and customization which leads to the selfless and nameless society.
14. Popular Culture: Native American Communities

    BBC and Reuters, the Times, and the Look portray that low-class location prevents many Native Americans to obtain social respect and opportunities available for the white majority.
15. American Popular Culture and Globalization Effects

    The ubiquity of wealth-concentrated American popular culture in the lives of modern people threatens the generally accepted system of values and causes adverse shifts in it.
16. Pop Culture, Entertainment and Media Representation

    This paper reviews three articles: Medhurst’s “Batman, Deviance, and Camp,” McBride and Bird’s “From Smart Fan to Backyard Wrestler,” and Kidd’s “Methodology Moment.”
17. Female Pop-Culture in “Where the Girls Are” by Douglas

    In “Where the Girls Are”, Susan J. Douglas analyzes the state of the media in the 1960-1970s. She describes and explains the female pop-culture images of the time.
18. Pop Culture in America

    Pop culture is a multidimensional concept acting in many interpretations as the opposite of elitist types of cultures and is often replaced by the term mass culture.

🤹 Pop Culture Argumentative Essay Topics

An argumentative essay requires you to take a clear stand on an issue. If you want good argumentative topics, check out our suggestions below!

Does Pop Culture Reflect Society?

Pop culture and society are closely related. Pop culture mirrors societal trends through music, fashion, films, and technology. At the same time, it can shape people’s attitudes and beliefs and alter social norms. In your essay, you can pick a specific artifact and show how it represents the society to which it belongs.

Can Pop Culture Be High Culture?

In an essay on this topic, you can prove that pop culture may sometimes become high culture. To demonstrate this phenomenon, consider the example of jazz. Back in the 1920s, it was part of low culture because of its close link to the black slave heritage. However, nowadays, this music genre is viewed as elite.

Can Pop Culture Promote Social Change?

Are you interested in the transformative power of pop culture? Consider writing an argumentative paper showing how pop culture affects social change. For instance, you can research the role of the radio drama The Archers in sparking national conversations about domestic violence. Alternatively, you can investigate how the Netflix series Orange is the New Black ignited debates about the need for criminal justice reform.

How Does Pop Culture Negatively Affect the Environment?

In an essay on this topic, you can explain how pop culture harms the environment. You can focus on a particular aspect of pop culture, like the fashion industry. How does it drive overconsumption? Analyze its contributions to global carbon emissions, tons of produced waste, and marine life damage.

Does Pop Culture Deserve Serious Study?

Popular culture is not just a swift-flowing trend. By examining pop culture objects, scholars can gain insights into a society’s values, communication styles, and even humor. Studying pop culture can also help researchers understand how our society has been changing over time.

💡 Simple Pop Culture Research Topics

1. The American Popular Culture in New York City
2. Modern Popular Culture: Katabasis
3. Latin American Popular Culture’s Transformed
4. The Erudite and Popular Culture and Music
5. New Femininities, Gender Constructs, and Popular Culture
6. Heroes Throughout History and Popular Culture
7. Asia and American Popular Culture
8. Subcultures: Popular Culture and Cultural Capital
9. Popular Culture, Gender Constructs, and “New Femininities”
10. Heterosexuality and Gender Ideals in Contemporary Popular Culture
11. Has Popular Culture Turned Marriage Into a Joke
12. Market Imperative and Popular Culture
13. Communism and Popular Culture
14. Vampire Genre Storms Popular Culture
15. Transcendentalism Through Popular Culture Project
16. Politics and Popular Culture During the 1960s
17. The Air Jordan Brand as Popular Culture Object
18. Popular Culture and Media Portrayals of Child Abuse
19. Japanese Popular Culture and Eastern Media Societies
20. Popular Culture and Feature Films
21. Popular Culture and Music Affect U.S. Public Opinion On
22. Critical Thought and Popular Culture
23. Popular Culture Affect Gender and Sexuality
24. Australian Popular Culture Influenced by the United States
25. Popular Culture: Historical Icons and American Culture
26. Mass Media, Popular Culture and the American Dream
27. Indian Cinema and Popular Culture
28. Folk Culture and Popular Culture
29. American Popular Culture: Trends and How They Affect Personal Decisions
30. Gender Roles and American Popular Culture

🕵️‍♀️ Pop Culture Analysis Essay Topics

When you analyze pop culture, you pick its artifact and explain why it matters. For instance, you can examine how it influences people’s behaviors or promotes social change.

Here are some engaging topics you can use to conduct your pop culture analysis:

1. How are mental health disorders portrayed in popular media?
2. The root causes of the American soap opera decline.
3. Are violent video games connected to real-life violence?
4. The effect of body positivity movement on the fashion market.
5. Pop art’s significance in modern advertising.
6. How do reality shows affect our values?
7. Investigate gender representations in the film industry.
8. What stereotypes can be found in sitcoms?
9. How do pop songs combat gender inequality?
10. The underlying messages in Disney animated films.

❓ Pop Culture Research Questions

1. Does Popular Culture Teach Immoral Values?
2. How Did “Frankenstein” Become an Essential Part of Pop Culture?
3. How Does the Line Between High and Popular Culture Become Blurred?
4. How the Popular Culture in the United States Depicted the 9/11 Attack?
5. Why “The Beatles” Revolutionized Music and Popular Culture?
6. Why Video Games Have Made a Shift Into Mainstream Popular Culture?
7. What Area the Differences Between Pop Culture and Reality?
8. What Are the Effects of the Simpsons Television Show on Pop Culture?
9. Will Western Popular Culture Destroy National Culture in Thailand and Malaysia?
10. Does “Romeo and Juliet” Deserve to Be Considered Pop Culture in the Elizabethan Era?
11. How Pop Culture and Mass Media Affects Each and Every One of Us?
12. How the Popular Culture and Politics of the 1970s Shaped American History?
13. What Negative Effects Popular Culture Has on Adolescent Women?
14. What Does Pop Culture War Mean and What’s Its Influence on Modern Society?
15. What Is the Change Into Popular Culture Through Media and Other Forms?
16. Why the Gap Between High and Pop Culture Is Still So Huge?
17. What Does the Popular Culture’s Critical Attention Mean?
18. How Can New Media Help Enhance the Spread of Local Pop Culture?
19. How Does Popular Culture Shape the Way Students See the World?
20. How Popular Culture Has Impacted the Smarts of the USA?
21. How and Why Japanese Pop Culture and Anime Comunity Has Invaded the U.S.?
22. How Does Popular Culture Shape Teen Society?
23. How Did the Infusion of Pop Culture in Educational Discourse Happen?
24. How Can Popular Culture Help to Engage Students in the Classroom?
25. How a School Shooting Affected a Nation, From Gun Control to Popular Culture?
26. What Event Has Forever Changed the Pop Culture of America?

🎤 Pop Culture Speech Topics

Looking for compelling speech topics on pop culture?

1. Ways to overcome pop culture obsession.
2. The evolution of the coffee cup lid.
3. Give a talk on the history of zombies in pop culture.
4. How does pop culture perpetuate stereotypes?
5. The simple solution to fast fashion.
6. How is pop culture becoming more globalized?
7. Explain the illuminating benefits of video games.
8. What is wrong with what we eat?
9. The significance of diversity in the comic book universe.
10. How does the music we listen to influence our social circles?

🗣️ Pop Culture Persuasive Speech Topics

1. Can stricter video game regulations help reduce youth violence?
2. Hollywood films should prioritize diversity and minority representation.
3. Do reality TV shows harm our relationships and values?
4. Music artists are well-positioned to foster political and social change.
5. The hidden dangers of the use of celebrity endorsements in advertising.
6. We should boycott fashion companies using excessive Photoshop and image editing.
7. Internet memes are a powerful tool to use in social activism.
8. Pop culture artists should challenge gender stereotypes.
9. Binge-watching as a threat to mental health.
10. Is it ethical to use CGI to resurrect dead actors in movies?

📢 Pop Culture Informative Speech Topics

An informative speech provides the audience with accurate and objective information about a specific topic. It seeks not to convince or entertain listeners but to expand their knowledge in the chosen field.

Check out these informative speech topics on pop culture:

1. Game of Thrones and medieval politics: similarities and differences.
2. The history and peculiarities of cosplay.
3. What makes pop songs go viral?
4. How can pop culture help students learn things?
5. The connection between pop culture and consumerism.
6. Explore the impact of manga on global pop culture.
7. Why does representation matter in pop culture?
8. How can pop culture impact our mental health?
9. Examining the evolution of pop culture trends.
10. Celebrity culture and its influence on teens.

💃 Pop Culture Criticism Topics

1. The lack of diversity in mainstream movies and TV shows.
2. Unrealistic standards promoted by fashion magazines.
3. The overemphasis on consumerism and materialism in pop culture.
4. The shallow nature of paparazzi culture.
5. The impact of digitalization on the homogenization of pop music.
6. The cult of youth and the marginalization of older pop culture icons.
7. The objectification of women in pop culture.
8. Modern pop culture: art as a commodity.
9. The promotion of toxic masculinity in pop culture and its effects.
10. The influence of pop culture on body image and eating disorders.

🌺 More Popular Culture Topics

1. The impact of pop culture on adolescents’ identity formation.
2. The portrayal of gender and sexuality in pop culture.
3. Video games as an educational tool.
4. The depiction of mental health issues in pop culture and its effects on stigma.
5. The link between pop culture and consumerism.
6. The role of memes in modern communication.
7. The place of cosplay and fandoms in pop culture.
8. The impact of pop culture on fashion trends.
9. The influence of streaming services on the film and TV industry.
10. Pop culture’s role in shaping national identity.